The present invention relates to emergency rescue devices, and more specifically, to a swift water advanced rescue device.
Emergency rescues are inherently dangerous and difficult. Such rescues, or attempted rescues, often take place in less than desirable weather conditions, and many times, it is the very nature of the weather that has caused the emergency. One particular type of emergency rescue is the rescue of victims from swiftly moving water. Such swift water emergency rescues may become necessary in a variety of situations, including on or in rivers, lakes, oceans, aqueducts and in various flood situations. Rescuing victims caught in such swift water is a difficult task. Previously, there have various attempts to fashion rescue devices to extricate victims from such swift water conditions and facilitate swift water rescues.
Traditionally, rescue of victims from swiftly moving water has been typically attempted by the use of ropes and life preservers. The life preserver was attached to a rope, and the rope attached to a structure, or held by a rescuer. The rescuer would then attempt to throw the life preserver out to the victim in the water, with the goal that the life preserver land in the immediate vicinity of the victim. Given the fast moving water, as well as the stormy weather conditions typical for such rescues, including rain and high winds, successfully implementing this method of rescue is difficult. While in ideal calm weather conditions, a skilled rescuer may be able to direct the life preserver to an area very near the victim, in typical swift water conditions, such a rescue is very difficult. The rope and life preserver must be directed with accuracy, despite the swift water current and likely windy conditions. The victim, often having substantial exposure to the water, and likely diminished strength, agility and general motor skills due to the exposure, must then grab the rope or life preserver, or even worse, attempt to swim toward the life preserver, which is likely not a stationary target due to the wind and water current. The actions required of both the rescuer and the victim for a successful rescue are extremely difficult to perform in swift water conditions. Further, if such a rescue attempt is unsuccessful, the conditions often limit the number of rescue attempts that are possible. For example, if the potential rescuer is on a bridge above the flowing water, or on a bank on one side of the water, he or she likely has only one or two attempts to make a rescue before the victim is out of reach. Typically, the rescuer may throw the life preserver once while the victim is upstream, and if unsuccessful, which is likely given the typical wind and current conditions, as well as the relatively small dimensions of the rope and life preserver combination, may then attempt to pull back in the rope and try again. By the time the life preserver has been retrieved from the errant first rescue attempt, the victim has likely passed downstream from the rescuer. Thus the second, and likely final rescue attempt must be made quickly before the victim is out of range of the rescuer's throw, adding the pressure of time to a situation already complicated by the elements. Even if a rescuer is able to successfully land the life preserver in the immediate vicinity of the victim, such a rescue device does not facilitate easy engagement with a victim. The victim has often been in the water for some time, and therefore fatigue may make even a short swim difficult. Further, the wind and current will typically keep the life preserver from remaining stationary, making it even more difficult for a victim to catch up to the life preserver. Even if the rescuer is able to land the life preserver very near to the victim, at a minimum the victim must locate the rope or life preserver, and grab on to it. The rope is relatively small, and typically not buoyant, and therefore difficult for a victim to either locate or take hold of. The life preserver, while much larger than the rope, is still relatively small. Further, it is often not easy for one struggling to stay afloat to successfully grab the life preserver. The life preserver is free to move when touched, and attempts to secure the life preserver often simply push the life preserver farther along in the water. In the hazardous conditions which seem typical of many swift water rescue attempts, such a seemingly simple task may become difficult, resulting in a literal life and death struggle by the victim to reach the life preserver and hold on to it.
An improvement to the typical rope and life preserver apparatus is the use of a combination of ropes, often in the form of a ladder. However, such ladders typically provide only a small rescue area, of only slightly larger area than the rope and life preserver combination. Such ladders typically provide no convenient method of rapid deployment, including quick yet secure attachment to a fixture. Such rope ladders also do not present a large engagement area to a victim because the rope ladders are typically not buoyant, and are likely to twist and wrap together rather than remaining spread apart in a “ladder” form.
Apparently recognizing the inherent difficulty in performing a swift water rescue with a small device such as a rope or ladder, rescue personnel have turned to the use of nets to provide a larger “rescue area” for victims to engage.
One such device is a relatively small, fixed-size net that appears to be designed for horizontal use. This net includes floats along its outside edges, as well as the center portion, to provide a floating, flat net. This implementation, while an improvement over the typical rope and life preserver, still provides a limited rescue area, and appears to suffer from the same problems, in that it appears that this device must also be accurately thrown out to the area of the victim, where the victim must then move to and take hold of the device.
A further improvement in the net-type rescue device was to hold a net in place, or attach the net to a structure or fixture, making the net, to some extent, fixed in one location. In this way, rather than both the victim and the rescue device moving in the swift water, a net may be positioned in an area to which the swift water will necessarily carry the victim.
Such nets are typically deployed across a river or aqueduct. One such device provides a net to be held by four persons, standing on opposite banks of the body of water. In many instances, deploying such a device could not be done quickly, as it would involve getting two rescuers on each bank of the body of water, and somehow getting the opposite ends of the net across the body of water. Further, it would appear that once a victim is caught in the net, if the rescue personnel are able to maintain their grip on the ropes, given the weight of the victim or victims, the swift current of the water, and any other debris caught by the net, then the rescuers on one bank (meaning now only two people, rather than four) would have to pull in the net, thereby dragging the victim across the water to the bank. In addition to the prolonged exposure in the water, the danger of submersion during such operation, and the danger to the victim of further injury by debris in the water as the victim is dragged across the water, there is also the risk of the two rescuers lacking sufficient strength to pull the victim all the way to the side, especially if other debris has become entangled in the net. While a smaller net may lessen the risk of entangling debris, it also lessens the probability of being able to catch the victim as well. Conversely, while a larger net may increase the odds of being able to catch the victim, it will also increase the odds of entangling debris, possibly injuring the victim and requiring much greater force to pull in the net.
Another device provides a large, moveable net. Rescuers would attempt to move the net laterally to the proper position to catch the person. However, such a device appears to require extensive set up, and could not be rapidly deployed in an emergency rescue type situation. Further, this device, like several others, presents a large, contiguous net portion, making it likely that the net will catch large debris, creating additional danger to persons in the water. Also, this device appears to require multiple persons to properly deploy and operate.
Another net-type device includes large weighted portions, which could be dangerous to victims in the water, making them more applicable for the removal of inanimate objects from the water. Further, as in the other devices, when the size of the net is enlarged to increase the chances of engaging the victim, the chances of engaging unwanted debris, which could damage the device, injure the victim, or both, are also increased. Finally, this device also appears to require multiple persons to properly deploy and operate.
Thus there exists the need for a swift water rescue device that provides a variable-size “rescue area” for victims to engage, which size may be adjusted as necessary depending on the particular application or situation, that allows debris to pass through, that is easily portable, that is rapidly deployable in a variety of locations, and that is easily deployed by only one person.